We must never forget the sacrifices of men and women that paved the way for the freedoms that we enjoy today.

Armistice by Sophie Jewett is fitting ...

The water sings along our keel, The wind falls to a whispering breath; I look into your eyes and feel No fear of life or death; So near is love, so far away The losing strife of yesterday.

We watch the swallow skim and dip; Some magic bids the world be still; Life stands with finger upon lip; Love hath his gentle will; Though hearts have bled, and tears have burned, The river floweth unconcerned.

We pray the fickle flag of truce Still float deceitfully and fair; Our eyes must love its sweet abuse; This hour we will not care, Though just beyond to-morrow's gate, Arrayed and strong, the battle wait.

The image is from 1933. In the middle are my grandparents Karl and Marie. In his civilian profession grandpa was an architect, working for the Reichsbahn, building bridges and teaching students. After outbreak of war he first became a Wehrmacht liaison-officer in Colonels rank and later volunteered to the Waffen SS. He was KIA in early 1945 in Pomerania. The guy at the outmost right in HJ uniform is my grand uncle Ernst who died in 1992. He attended the Westfeldzug and Barbarossa in Panzergruppe Guderian. It was him who introduced me into the East Front.

As a little anecdote aside, Grandma was displaced from Warthegau in 1945. She fortunately still got a train spot with her kids to Western Germany and later lived near Fulda in the American occupation zone. After defeat a GI patrol came along when she just had dinner and the officer asked if she was hosting SS members. Grandma, who never learned English, understood something about essen (what means to eat in German) and answered 'yes'. The soldiers searched the whole house, but of course couldn't find anybody. When the patrol was gone, she disposed grandpa's black uniform and dagger which were hidden under coals in the cellar. So the only keepsakes I got 30 years later were his knapsack and this image.

The image is from 1933. In the middle are my grandparents Karl and Marie. In his civilian profession grandpa was an architect, working for the Reichsbahn, building bridges and teaching students. After outbreak of war he first became a Wehrmacht liaison-officer in Colonels rank and later volunteered to the Waffen SS. He was KIA in early 1945 in Pomerania. The guy at the outmost right in HJ uniform is my grand uncle Ernst who died in 1992. He attended the Westfeldzug and Barbarossa in Panzergruppe Guderian. It was him who introduced me into the East Front.

As a little anecdote aside, Grandma was displaced from Warthegau in 1945. She fortunately still got a train spot with her kids to Western Germany and later lived near Fulda in the American occupation zone. After defeat a GI patrol came along when she just had dinner and the officer asked if she was hosting SS members. Grandma, who never learned English, understood something about essen (what means to eat in German) and answered 'yes'. The soldiers searched the whole house, but of course couldn't find anybody. When the patrol was gone, she disposed grandpa's black uniform and dagger which were hidden under coals in the cellar. So the only keepsakes I got 30 years later were his knapsack and this image.

warspite1

Yes Lützow, thanks for sharing. Wow. I have something not disimilar - i.e. a large family gathering from a wedding in London taken in the mid-thirties. Nothing very different (although a distinct lack of uniforms in the London picture!). But my picture - and yours posted above - immediately brings to mind the same thought though. I wonder what happened to these people? What are their stories from the monumental events soon to be visited upon them?

Isn't history fascinating?

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England expects that every man will do his duty - Horatio Nelson 1805.

Thanks for sharing the photo. Many of our German wargamers have family stories etc, but I think they feel they can't talk about them. Which is a shame. WW1 and WW2 many, many men and women died on both sides and their sacrifice needs to be remembered just as much as the victors.

Yes, it's a shame that so many memories are lost forever. Even everybody on this pic belonged to my family, or at least was a close friend, I only know about the fate of a few people there. One of my grand grandpa's, the old guy upfront left, was born in the 1870'sh. He was a state official when Wilhelm II still ruled Germany and had 11 kids (grandma and 10 boys). One of his boys died after birth, another one was KIA in Stalingrad, one died post war and three of them I still got to know. Regarding the rest I don't even know their names.

Thanks for sharing the photo. Many of our German wargamers have family stories etc, but I think they feel they can't talk about them. Which is a shame. WW1 and WW2 many, many men and women died on both sides and their sacrifice needs to be remembered just as much as the victors.

+1

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Our lives may be more boring than those who lived in apocalyptic times, but being bored is greatly preferable to being prematurely dead because of some ideological fantasy.- Michael Burleigh

Watching the premier league (football/soccer) and noticied that the players have the poppy on their shirts. I remember wearing the poppies whilst attending the Army schools here in Germany.

The only thing that is celebrated in Germany on the 11.11 is the beginning of their carneval which lasts till Feb 2013. They tend to forget that WW1 ended on this day, well a year later when the leaders got together in Versailles to sign the treaty.

It is not an easy matter to remember anybody that was killed in the war and the wars to follow, if you do, you tend to get thrown into the right wing fraction of Germany. The two World Wars are not a thing that get taught in schools over here, rather the political side of the 3rd Reich and their crimes commited against humanity. How it happened and how it might have been prevented. The exile of the Kaiser after WW1 leading to the Weimar Rebublic, are really the only parts of WW1 that get taught.

In some towns eg. Münster they have only just renamed a square Schloßplatz after it had been known for years as the Hindenburgplatz. Hindenburg was the person who made it possible for Hitler to gain power.

Germany remembers the peaceful side of their history, tries to work a way around the 3rd Reich. But fallen soldiers are not really remembered here, as in the UK, Commenwealth or the US.

Mat

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"It is not enough to expect a man to pay for the best, you must also give him what he pays for." Alfred Dunhill

Wow british exil! Sometimes I wonder if not knowing the past tends to make us repeat it? Not saying that is what is being or not being thought in German schools but very interesting to hear that.

Wanted to share a short story:

I was born in Canada in 1963 and shortly afterwards my father was transferred to France as part of the Canadian Military serving in Europe. We lived for a while in a small town named Marville in NE France but were soon asked to leave as DeGaulle decided that he no longer wanted Foreign Troops to occupy France and wanted out or partly out of NATO. Anyhow my Dad was part of the very few who spoke English and French and was put in the foray of helping American and Canadian Military personnel to find new places to live in Belgium and Germany until more PMQs could be built or found. We stayed a little longer as my sister was born in Marville then moved to SE Belgium not too far from where my Grandma was born in Serain near Liege. We moved into a small town called Virton. Needless to say most weekends were spent visiting old battlefields in the Ardennes where my passion for history grew. I can even remember always asking my dad to stop where a huge German King Tiger was kept as a trophy near a bridge (sorry can't remember the name of the town now)nonetheless I guess that is where and when I new I wanted to be a historian, hence my 5 majors in it now.

Anyhow after many years and just before we came back to Canada I was about 10, I spoke fluent French, German and English as I went to a French/German school and my mom was all English Canadian, the land-lady was crying so sadly when I was leaving that she handed me a small rectangular box and said "I have been saving this for so many years but I think you will like it amongst your little war time collections of odds and ends". Well low and behold it was a German WW2 Flag. It had flown outside her home during the occupation as she had Wehrmacht Officers boarding there for a short time. She had removed it when the Allies had taken over the area and simply had put it in a box and saved it all those years.

Well my mom was not too happy but to me it was part of History not part of the bad or the good of war but simply a historical piece plus it was authentic and the real McCoy! So I took it back with me to Canada but was never allowed to show it when my mom was around nor when my Grandparents came by for a visit (they had immigrated to Canada in the 1920s). I cherished and kept it for about another 3 years and still had my Mom bitch and complain that she did not want this in our house so my dad and I moved it to the Garage on a shelf to be forgotten.

One day when I was 14 a Military acquaintance of my dad a full Colonel in the West German Army came by for a visit to our home in Quebec and my dad told him about the flag. Well he wanted it to commemorate his dad that had served in the same area of Belgium that I had been given the flag. So he offered me a new full 10 speed Bicycle in exchange and with the forceful look of my Mother I accepted. I loved the bike it was the best that any boy of 14 could have asked for but I liked the flag more. Nonetheless it made him happy, my mom happy and me reluctantly happy.

Looking back now, I regret having exchanged it again not for what it mean but purely for it's historical significance. I would never had flown it or displayed it in any way but the Historian in me would have been able to understand it's value. I am sure that West German Colonel had more sentimental value for it than I did. It has been more then 34 years, I do not have the flag anymore but I still yes believe me have the bike hung up in the rafters of my garage. Part of me could never get rid of that rusty old bike now...............

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It is much harder to think about doing something than actually doing it!

No I don't, I will check with my Dad but somehow I remember my dad heading overseas to attend a Funeral years back while I was working in South America (Brazil) at the time and never followed up to see who it was. I am having breakfast at the Legion with him Saturday morning, I will be sure to ask and report back. I would trade my wife's 2012 Brand New S300 Mercedes to get the flag back!! LOL!

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It is much harder to think about doing something than actually doing it!